Since we are focusing on short stories about Nicholas van Rijn in spaceships and since we have just finished rereading "Margin of Profit" and "Hiding Place," we have nowhere else to turn but to "Lodestar," a pivotal Technic History story that combines van Rijn, trader team and Ythrians and introduces Coya Conyon and Mirkheim. The story epitomizes the pyramidal structure of a Heinleinian future history series as its author builds more on what has gone before. Van Rijn and his granddaughter, Coya Conyon, travel in an Ythrian spaceship to the supermetals-rich planet, Mirkheim, that had been discovered by David Falkayn, leader of van Rijn's trader team. As yet, Mirkheim, unnamed, is referred to as "Lodestar" in the title and as "Eka-World" (p. 677) in the text.
Pages 631-632 are Hloch's Introduction to "Lodestar" from The Earth Book Of Stormgate;
pp. 633-639 are a trader team story, narrated from Falkayn's point of view;
after a double space between paragraphs, pp. 639-680 recount a van Rijn story, narrated from Coya's pov;
on p. 677, the trader team ship, Muddlin' Through, lays alongside the Ythrian Gaiian/Dewfall and the two groups of characters meet so that we see Falkayn from Coya's pov.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Just a bit more about Mirkheim itself would have been interesting, to show just what made that planet so valuable, and why. And might there be similar planets for real out in the galaxy?
Ad astra! Sean
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